1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording/reproducing apparatus, a control method thereof, a program and a storage medium, and more particularly, to an image recording/reproducing apparatus comprising a recording unit for recording input image data on a recording medium and a communication unit for connecting to external device and performing communication, a control method thereof, a program and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when image data that has been recorded on an image recording/reproducing apparatus such as a digital video camera or a digital camera is saved, the recorded image data is transferred to a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a “PC”) or the like, and recorded on a large-capacity recording device such as a hard disk in the PC, or on a random access medium such as an optical disk.
When the PC is provided with a memory adapter, a user can mount on the memory adapter a recording medium that has been mounted on the image recording/reproducing apparatus, and transfer the image data recorded on the recording medium to the large-capacity recording device in the PC for storage. The recording media that can be mounted on the image recording/reproducing apparatuses include a compact flash (registered trademark), an SD card, a memory stick (registered trademark), a CD-R/RW and a DVD.
When the PC is not provided with a memory adapter, the PC and the image recording/reproducing apparatus are connected to each other through a digital interface, and the image data recorded on the recording medium in the image recording/reproducing apparatus is transferred to the large-capacity recording device in the PC for recording. The digital interfaces include a high-speed serial interface such as USB or IEEE 1394.
In either of these cases, a user uses an application software on the PC (hereinafter simply referred to as an “application”) to instruct to perform data transfer from the recording medium on the side of the image recording/reproducing apparatus to the large-capacity recording device on the side of the PC, allowing data to be transferred and saved. In such a case, if the recording capacity of the large-capacity recording device on the side of the PC is sufficiently larger than that of the recording medium on the side of the image recording/reproducing apparatus, the user can transfer and save the image data into the large-capacity recording device on the side of the PC without concern for the size of the image data recorded on the recording medium of the image recording/reproducing apparatus.
However, if the capacity of the recording medium on the side of the image recording/reproducing apparatus becomes large, the user have to transfer and save the image data with concern for the difference between the capacity of the recording medium on the side of the image recording/reproducing apparatus and the capacity of the large-capacity recording device on the side of the PC. Further, if a recording medium to which the image data is to be transferred is a storage medium having a limited capacity such as a DVD, a CD-R and a CD-RW, the recording capacity of a transfer destination may be less than the size of the image data. In such a case, image data to be transferred has to be selected according to the recording capacity of the transfer destination, however, such tasks put a burden on the user.
As a method to solve this problem, a technique has been proposed whereby a recording area of the large-capacity recording medium on the side of the image recording/reproducing apparatus is divided according to the expected recording capacity of the transfer destination, so that a burden during a backup task by a user is reduced (see, e.g. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-314905, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-173000).
An overview of an operation whereby image data recorded on a large-capacity recording medium in an image recording/reproducing apparatus is transferred to and recorded on a large-capacity recording device in a PC will now be described with reference to FIGS. 23 and 24.
In FIG. 23, a digital video camera 200 as an image recording/reproducing apparatus has a 1 terabyte (TM) large-capacity recording medium 201, and is connected to a PC 220 through a USB interface 210. The PC 220 is connected to a DVD drive 230.
When the digital video camera 200 is connected, the PC 220 recognizes the digital video camera 200 as an external recording device. In the large-capacity recording medium 201 of the digital video camera 200, the recording area is divided, and image data is recorded on each divided area (hereinafter referred to as a “folder”).
In FIG. 24, a browser 240 is a screen displayed on a display 220a (FIG. 24) with which the PC 220 is provided by an application running on the PC 220. On a display area 250 on the browser 240, a list of recording devices connected to or built into the PC 220 including the DVD drive 230 is displayed. In the list on the display area 250, the digital video camera 200 is also displayed as one (icon 270) of the recording devices that are connected to the PC 220.
Furthermore, folders of each recording device can be displayed on the display area 250. Accordingly, on the display area 250, for example, as shown in FIG. 24, a plurality of folders that represent the divided recording areas of the large-capacity recording medium 201 are displayed. In addition, when one of the folders in the display area 250 is selected, a list of image data saved in the folder 280 that is being currently selected is displayed on a display area 260.
When the user instructs to select and transfer these image data as necessary, transfer from the digital video camera 200 to the PC 220 is started. The transferred data is written into a DVD, which is placed in the DVD drive 230, thus a backup task is achieved.
However, in a conventional image recording/reproducing apparatus like the above described digital video camera 200, if the number of sub areas displayed on the display area 250 in the list form is large, searching in the list for image data that the user wishes to back up becomes a cumbersome task for the user. The larger the capacity of the large-capacity recording medium 201, the more difficult this task of searching for the image data becomes.